The present invention relates to sewing, in particular to a sewing machine, setting up the sewing machine for sewing an article, a sewn article, and a method for sewing two or more pieces to form the sewn article.
Multiple pieces of material are often sewn together to form a sewn article. For example, a covering for a leather seat in an automobile comprises two or more pieces of leather which are sewn together along edges of the individual leather pieces. The seam between the two pieces, must be strong to prevent the pieces from separating, and, in the example of a car seat covering, the seam should be decorative, or pleasing to the consumer.
A known article, shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, uses a join seam to join two pieces of material, such as leather, for car seat covering. The article is formed by positioning the two pieces of leather on top of each other, such that the finished surfaces of the pieces are facing each other. The two pieces of leather are joined by sewing the join seam spaced inwardly from an edge of the pieces to define a selvedge between the seam and the edge of each piece of leather. The article is then laid flat, such that the finished surfaces of the leather pieces face upwardly to form an outer surface of the car seat cover.
This particular method has been in use for many years. The material, such as leather, is expensive, and the selvedge is often large, such as 7–10 mm, to simplify sewing the article. Unfortunately, the selvedge is unseen in the finished product except for an unsightly bulge adjacent the seam, and in many article, serves no useful purpose. Therefore, the large selvedge constitutes wasted material that increases the cost of the article. In articles in which a smaller selvedge is required, the large selvedge is often cut down to the smaller selvedge length in a separate operation after the article is sewn. The material cut away from the selvedge is discarded as waste, and the cutting process requires additional labor which further increases the cost of the article.
Sewing machines can be specifically set up to form articles having a small selvedge by adjusting a sew guide to the desired selvedge length. The sew guide engages the material being sewn to guide the material past the needle. Adjusting a sew guide on a sewing machine to provide any particular selvedge length is time consuming. In particular, when adjusting the sew guide close to moving sewing machine components, such as a reciprocating needle, extra care and time must be taken to properly measure and secure the sew guide to ensure the sewing guide is properly positioned and to avoid damage to the sewing machine.
Moreover, moving the sew guide closer to the needle of the sewing machine forms a small gap between the sew guide and sewing machine components. The article being sewn tends to ride up in the small gap and jam the sewing machine compared to a sewing machine set up to form an article having a selvedge of greater than 7 mm. Therefore, articles requiring small selvedges are typically sewn without the use of a sew guide and the operator must visually maintain the edge of the article proper positioned relative to the needle. Accordingly, sewing machine operators find that sewing articles having a small selvedge, i.e. a selvedge less than 7 mm, is more difficult. Therefore, a need exists for a simple method and apparatus that minimizes selvedge